0:00:03 > 0:00:06For the last 60 years, British retailers have led
0:00:06 > 0:00:10the world and changed the way we live.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14From family-run empires
0:00:14 > 0:00:17to pioneering supermarkets,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and from fashion boutiques
0:00:20 > 0:00:22to the online revolution,
0:00:22 > 0:00:24retail is something we've been good at.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30In tonight's episode, we tell the story of the retail explosion
0:00:30 > 0:00:36of the nineties and early 2000s, a period of breathtaking change.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38In the old days, retailers bought things,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40stuck them in the shops, and said, "Take it or leave it."
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Today, it's...we put stuff in the shops
0:00:42 > 0:00:45and if they don't want it, they don't buy it.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48These were the boom years,
0:00:48 > 0:00:54when big beasts stalked the high street, looking to make a killing.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59I'm an educated risk-taker. You've got to be brave,
0:00:59 > 0:01:00got to have a strong heart.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05We flocked to buy a great variety of ever-cheaper goods...
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Go back, go back, you can't get in.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11..often made abroad.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16But our love affair with shopping would get out of control as
0:01:16 > 0:01:21we racked up big debts to pay for all that lovely stuff.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27I was amazed at the easy level of obtaining high amounts of credit,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30and in my heart I knew it just could not possibly last.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35# A taste of a poisoned paradise I'm addicted you
0:01:35 > 0:01:37# Don't you know that you're toxic? #
0:01:39 > 0:01:40This was the period
0:01:40 > 0:01:45when our retailers were at their most brilliant, world-beating best.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49But it was also the era when our love affair with shopping
0:01:49 > 0:01:51became a dangerous addiction.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Come with me back to the early 1990s.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17The economy is in recession and Britain's shops are in trouble.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26But there was one supermarket chain which would emerge from the
0:02:26 > 0:02:32crisis as the biggest, most fearsome British retailer we've ever seen.
0:02:32 > 0:02:37It lured us in with falling prices and a pioneering loyalty scheme
0:02:37 > 0:02:41that would reward us while telling them what we wanted to buy.
0:02:46 > 0:02:53Tesco would become a colossus, expanding relentlessly at home and abroad.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57But it had all started here in a backstreet of East London's Hackney,
0:02:57 > 0:03:03when a young Jack Cohen, around 100 years ago, put his barrow down
0:03:03 > 0:03:09and started to flog army surplus fish paste and golden syrup.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Tesco was born.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19Known as Slasher Jack or Governor to his staff,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Cohen was one of the legendary characters of British retail.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25It may be hard to believe now it's become a cliche,
0:03:25 > 0:03:30but his slogan really was, "pile it high and sell it cheap".
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Oh, dear.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38His barrow operation became Tesco - the 'Tes' came from his tea
0:03:38 > 0:03:43supplier, TE Stockwell, and the 'co' from Cohen.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46In the decades that followed, he turned his barrow into
0:03:46 > 0:03:49one of Britain's biggest supermarket chains.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58He looked like a sunburnt walnut, this wonderful craggy face,
0:03:58 > 0:04:04a huge personality, very interested in everything,
0:04:04 > 0:04:05a magnetic character.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12This is Jack's signature, really, this lovely little tiepin.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15And he gave it to very special people.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19And he said, "Here's my tiepin, it's an old Yiddisher saying."
0:04:19 > 0:04:21And they used to look at it
0:04:21 > 0:04:27and they said, "YCDBSOYA. What does that mean then, Jack?"
0:04:27 > 0:04:30And he had this wicked twinkle in his eye, and he'd say:
0:04:30 > 0:04:34It means, "You can't do business sitting on your arse."
0:04:34 > 0:04:36And they all sort of laughed, and that was Jack.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38That was Jack's signature, I think.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Come on, somebody say yes, I'll charge you a pound.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Cohen's swashbuckling spirit shaped the way Tesco
0:04:53 > 0:04:56developed in the post-war years.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00And he never lost his market trader's instincts.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Salesmanship, showmanship, call it what you like.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06And you've got to keep this going all the time.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09Every week, there must be something special, something new,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13something people want to come in and say, "Now what's special this week?"
0:05:13 > 0:05:15And that's the excitement of business.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Since the early 1960s, Sir Jack Cohen had pinned
0:05:23 > 0:05:27a great deal on Green Shield Stamps, an early loyalty scheme.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31You were given them at the till, and had to stick them into books.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34In our house, we had a whole sideboard full of them,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37and my mum and dad exchanged them for toasters and kettles.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41- News, news, news!- Green Shield's come to town, oh, yeah!
0:05:41 > 0:05:45# Green Shield's come to town Say Green Shield stamps
0:05:45 > 0:05:47# Say Green Shield Stamps.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52# You get wonderful gifts with Green Shield Stamps. #
0:05:52 > 0:05:53Oh, yeah!
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Towards the end of the scheme, well, it all got a bit crazy.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00You could get a colour television for 700 books.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03That's a lot of shopping and licking.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05# Green Shield Stamps
0:06:05 > 0:06:08# You get wonderful free gifts with Green Shield Stamps. #
0:06:13 > 0:06:15But by the mid 1970s, both Cohen
0:06:15 > 0:06:20and his beloved Green Shield Stamps were running out of steam.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Against his wishes, the Tesco board dumped the loyalty scheme.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31As Slasher Jack's health faded, Ian MacLaurin took his ailing boss
0:06:31 > 0:06:34for a day out in a brand-new superstore.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40I stood by him and I looked down on this frail, old man,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44holding him up, and tears were rolling down his face.
0:06:44 > 0:06:45And he said, "You know, Ian,"
0:06:45 > 0:06:49he said, "I never thought I'd see anything like this."
0:06:49 > 0:06:51And I put him back in the Rolls-Royce
0:06:51 > 0:06:55and he went back to Harley Street Clinic and he died that night.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Sir Jack Cohen was typical of the great entrepreneurs
0:07:07 > 0:07:11who created Britain's giant retailers - buccaneering,
0:07:11 > 0:07:12domineering, instinctive.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17But at the time he died, Tesco was no longer
0:07:17 > 0:07:20seen as a great threat to the market leader, Sainsbury's.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22It was Sir Jack Cohen's successors
0:07:22 > 0:07:25who'd propel Tesco right to the top.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28In their more quiet and understated way,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32they did something very simple - they listened to customers
0:07:32 > 0:07:33and gave them what they wanted.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Tesco had been steadily making progress through the '80s.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47But it wasn't until after the recession of the early 1990s,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50that it really surged ahead.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53The company's marketing boss, Terry Leahy,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56understood what his customers wanted.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59It turned out that customers were the most reliable guide.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02They said, "Look, we've been in recession,
0:08:02 > 0:08:06"we need you to offer us good value.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10"And we need you to be more aware of the pressures we're facing today."
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Tesco responded by going back to its low-price roots.
0:08:17 > 0:08:24First it launched its Value range and then came the famous marketing slogan, "Every Little Helps".
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Tesco was cutting prices to boost sales while,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31in contrast, Sainsbury's was protecting its profits.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35This was a return to the glory days of Slasher Jack.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Perhaps value was in Tesco's DNA.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46Tesco always had a keen eye for price when dealing with suppliers.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49'Because the one thing a price-cutting company needs is sheer size.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53'The power to place orders large enough to force bargains with
0:08:53 > 0:08:55'even the biggest manufacturers.'
0:08:55 > 0:08:58If we can buy right, we can sell right, it's as easy as that.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01And this price you're quoting me here is a bit too high.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04You've got to come back and give us a better price
0:09:04 > 0:09:06so that we can sell it at a good price.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Now it could offer even lower prices, because it was operating
0:09:16 > 0:09:20on a bigger scale, enabling it to buy in bulk and sell cheap.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28This was due to another canny move by Tesco - it bought vast
0:09:28 > 0:09:31amounts of property during the recession of the early '90s,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36acquiring sites for a new generation of out-of-town superstores.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43We were able to accelerate it through in sort of '93, '94, '95.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46And that gave us the opportunity to leave the others cold.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And I mean they... They didn't catch up then
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and they haven't caught up to this day.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57The other huge contributor to Tesco's rise came from Terry Leahy.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03He'd been pondering how to revive Slasher Jack's retailing trick -
0:10:03 > 0:10:05the loyalty scheme.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10What his team came up with was Clubcard.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18At Tesco, we think the world of our customers.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21And we've been looking for a way to show our appreciation.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26'Before Clubcard, we literally didn't know who was shopping in our stores.'
0:10:26 > 0:10:29You might be spending the biggest part of your weekly income
0:10:29 > 0:10:32in a Tesco store and we didn't even know it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36And we certainly didn't know if you left, we wouldn't know why you left.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40So we wanted just to recognise you as a customer and say thank you.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43As a Clubcard member, the more you shop at Tesco,
0:10:43 > 0:10:44the more we give you back.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48The Tesco thank you card, sorry, Tesco Clubcard.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50Because every little helps.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Tesco's Clubcard can be seen as the natural successor to
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Sir Jack Cohen's Green Shield Stamps.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02But under Sir Terry Leahy, this was a loyalty scheme for the age of IT
0:11:02 > 0:11:04and computerised market research.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10Clubcard was to supercharge Tesco's rise to the top of British retail.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14# Join our club. #
0:11:16 > 0:11:18Ooh, it's still warm.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Clubcard was more than an old-fashioned loyalty scheme.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30It gave Tesco a vast amount of data about its customers
0:11:30 > 0:11:31and what they were buying.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37What Tesco needed was someone to turn the raw numbers
0:11:37 > 0:11:39into profitable information.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43As the card was tested in 14 stores,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48Tesco asked the advice of a self-confessed geek, Clive Humby.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51'The data tells a very rich story.
0:11:51 > 0:11:56'If you track a household over a year, you can do things like spot'
0:11:56 > 0:11:58people going off to university
0:11:58 > 0:12:00because the Pop Tarts and the pizzas disappear
0:12:00 > 0:12:04and Mum and Dad start eating traditional fruit and veg again.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08You can see a baby being born, in fact you can often see
0:12:08 > 0:12:12a baby coming, before the baby is even born, because the
0:12:12 > 0:12:15parents start preparing the house and buying the basics.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19So you can actually see things in the way people are living their lives.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28As the Clubcard trial came to an end in 1994,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32the board had to decide whether to extend it to the whole country.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36We did our pitch, and there was this huge, long silence,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and then eventually Sir Ian MacLaurin, as he was then,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42turned round and said, "This really worries me,"
0:12:42 > 0:12:45and I thought, "Oh, goodness. We've got it wrong," you know?
0:12:45 > 0:12:48He said, "You know more about our business in three months than
0:12:48 > 0:12:53"I do in all my years as a retailer. We've got to do this, guys."
0:12:53 > 0:12:56I mean, it frightened us, initially, to be quite honest with you -
0:12:56 > 0:12:58how good it was
0:12:58 > 0:13:02and how we could actually, you know, change the way we ran our business.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08The breakthrough was that Tesco could use the information to
0:13:08 > 0:13:12reconnect with its customers in a more personal way,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15offering them discounts and rewards based on their tastes
0:13:15 > 0:13:19and needs, as the ads were keen to emphasise.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22There's my letter and my vouchers and my Clubcard.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Thank you, Mrs Temple.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27- I'm Dotty, actually. - Yes. I understand
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Tesco had found an ingenious way to encourage us to spend more and more.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Because points meant prizes.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40I love a bargain and obviously they were promoting them in-store
0:13:40 > 0:13:43and first of all I thought, "Well, I'll get them for the money off,"
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and then I looked into it more and I thought, "Oh, actually, you can
0:13:46 > 0:13:49"get loads of good deals." I started saving them up
0:13:49 > 0:13:53each quarter and then I got holidays and days out
0:13:53 > 0:13:58and meals out, trips across the Channel to France, just lots
0:13:58 > 0:14:01of lovely things that we couldn't normally afford without Clubcards.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04How fast did you see the success of Clubcard?
0:14:04 > 0:14:05Almost straightaway.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10In a slow-growth industry, one or two percent makes an enormous difference.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12And the week after Clubcard was launched,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14we outperformed the industry by 10% -
0:14:14 > 0:14:18that's a profound change. I knew my life had changed, I knew that
0:14:18 > 0:14:21the whole industry structure would never be the same again.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Had you ever seen sales growth like that in your entire career?
0:14:25 > 0:14:30No. No, this was unprecedented and that for me is why
0:14:30 > 0:14:35I think Clubcard was probably the most single, significant factor
0:14:35 > 0:14:37in the success of Tesco.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Powered by Clubcard, Tesco overtook arch-rivals Sainsbury's,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51and finally became Britain's number one supermarket.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00And Terry Leahy accelerated its expansion abroad
0:15:00 > 0:15:02into Eastern Europe and Asia.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11Tesco's success abroad and unprecedented dominance
0:15:11 > 0:15:16at home won them millions of new customers and plenty of enemies.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Lots of small businesses moaned, some of them legitimately,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30that you put them out of business.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32How did you feel about that?
0:15:32 > 0:15:35I always felt Tesco was doing good work.
0:15:35 > 0:15:36But it was done in competition
0:15:36 > 0:15:41and in competition there are winners and losers and...
0:15:41 > 0:15:42But it's not...
0:15:42 > 0:15:44It's not just supermarkets who were losers though, was it?
0:15:44 > 0:15:47I mean, I think that's the point that grates with many people.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Progress is very painful and it's messy.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54And, erm, you know, the... The...
0:15:54 > 0:15:58The many small benefits for millions of people often came
0:15:58 > 0:16:00at the price, a big price, for individual businesses
0:16:00 > 0:16:02that went out of business.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Whether you think Tesco's been good or bad for Britain,
0:16:11 > 0:16:15it's arguably been pretty impressive in one significant way.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18The history of British retailers expanding abroad has
0:16:18 > 0:16:20typically been pretty sorry.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26At Tesco, there are now more than 27 million people outside the UK
0:16:26 > 0:16:28who hold its Clubcard.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Tesco has been a world beater.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40By the mid-1990s, the economy was beginning to revive.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43And after the years of recession,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45spending started to flutter into life.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51There was increasingly easy access to credit.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Deregulation and a booming economy spurred banks to lend.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Between 1993 and 1998, the amount borrowed on credit cards
0:17:04 > 0:17:11almost doubled from £9.9 billion to just over £19 billion.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15We were beginning to get into debt to feed our shopping habit.
0:17:15 > 0:17:22But, as any addict knows, you can't have a six-day-a-week addiction.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26In the mid-1990s, most shops still couldn't open on a Sunday.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28But the law was a mess.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33It didn't apply in Scotland, and in England and Wales,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36well, you could buy cigarettes and porn on a Sunday,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40but you couldn't buy a Bible because bookshops couldn't open.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43The scene was set for an almighty scrap
0:17:43 > 0:17:45between the retailing bosses
0:17:45 > 0:17:49and the bishops for ownership of the Sabbath, for ownership of Sunday.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01On one side, you had many of Britain's big superstores
0:18:01 > 0:18:06and DIY chains lobbying frantically to be able to trade on a Sunday.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16It was a big moment and a big battle.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20It's remarkable in a way that this legislation,
0:18:20 > 0:18:25which was from a different era, meant that, you know, the one day of
0:18:25 > 0:18:28the week where ordinary families could go shopping,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30the stores were closed.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32ALL: Keep Sunday special!
0:18:32 > 0:18:34- When do we want it?- ALL: Now!
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Ranged against them was a small band of irregulars,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42the Keep Sunday Special campaign, led by Michael Schluter.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47People from all walks of life, from all parts of the country,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49for all kinds of reasons,
0:18:49 > 0:18:54want to see the quality of life maintained in this country.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00It did feel very much like a David and Goliath fight.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05If you make Sunday into a shopping day, primarily, then where in the
0:19:05 > 0:19:10week do people get the shared time off to spend together?
0:19:10 > 0:19:12So, it was partly about those relationships
0:19:12 > 0:19:16and partly about relationship with God for those who had faith.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19- Sunday trading? No, thank you.- No, thank you.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21No, thank you.
0:19:21 > 0:19:22You must be joking!
0:19:24 > 0:19:28At stake was the special character of the British Sunday.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34Would it remain a day of soporific telly, big lunches and walks,
0:19:34 > 0:19:36or become just another shopping day?
0:19:45 > 0:19:51In the run up to the vote in December 1993, it was neck and neck.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55But at the last minute, one side edged ahead.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58The ayes to the right, 286. The noes to the left, 304.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02There were just 18 votes in it,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06but Parliament voted for trading on a Sunday.
0:20:06 > 0:20:07Order!
0:20:07 > 0:20:12'On that night, I realised that we had made this huge
0:20:12 > 0:20:15'step across the line,'
0:20:15 > 0:20:16and there was no going back.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20So as I walked out of the House of Commons, I felt really desolate.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I felt really, really gutted.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28We'd known what it was like to have a day off that was different
0:20:28 > 0:20:31and we decided to tear up that tradition.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Today, it's quite hard to remember a time when we didn't have
0:20:36 > 0:20:38Sunday trading.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40It's not a question you ask any more.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42It's an essential part of the... of the business.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44It's the heart of the business, Sunday trading.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47It's only six hours, but it's a vital six hours.
0:20:47 > 0:20:48It's what people want.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Sunday trading was to change the British way of life.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Today, Sunday is the second most important trading day
0:20:59 > 0:21:01for most retailers.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05The arrival of Sunday trading shows how our love of shopping was
0:21:05 > 0:21:07sweeping away everything in its path.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Fuelling this growing materialism was the housing
0:21:15 > 0:21:17boom of the late 1990s.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23House prices shot up and people felt richer.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27They were richer on paper, which encouraged them to go out and spend.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32Much of that spending was on home improvement.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36People equated the good life with a stylish house.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41# Do you understand me now? #
0:21:41 > 0:21:45- This is wonderful!- You like it, do you?- It's fantastic!
0:21:45 > 0:21:47- Do you like it? - Smashing! Yes, it's lovely.
0:21:48 > 0:21:55DIY and self-assembly became the new craze. And one store would
0:21:55 > 0:21:58emerge as the undisputed leader of the flat-pack.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07In 1987, a vast new warehouse of a store was opened
0:22:07 > 0:22:11here in Warrington, which would turn the humble Allen key
0:22:11 > 0:22:15into the only bit of kit you need if you want to lead a stylish life.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Now, in the process, Warrington,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20which many people think of as a great home of rugby league,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24was turned into a magnet for expat Swedes
0:22:24 > 0:22:28and also for design-conscious and cost-conscious Brits.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31This was the first British location of IKEA.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41IKEA began life in Sweden in 1943.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46When it wanted to expand in Britain, it inevitably looked at London.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51But a wily local development agency wooed it to Warrington.
0:22:56 > 0:22:57For the locals,
0:22:57 > 0:23:02the arrival of minimalist Swedish design was an exciting adventure.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09I don't think Warrington's ever seen excitement like an IKEA opening!
0:23:09 > 0:23:13I think King George visited in about 1890 or something,
0:23:13 > 0:23:15and they closed Warrington town centre off.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18This was like 100 times bigger than that!
0:23:20 > 0:23:23They queued from the early hours for a first
0:23:23 > 0:23:26glimpse into the Aladdin's cave alongside the M62.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Welcome to the first IKEA store in England.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35It was really, really manic. We had coach
0:23:35 > 0:23:39trips from Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, people who'd
0:23:39 > 0:23:43come over on the ferry, people who'd come from the tips of Scotland,
0:23:43 > 0:23:45people who had waited, like ourselves,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47for the first IKEA UK to open.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55'But probably the biggest surprise IKEA had for British customers was
0:23:55 > 0:23:56'the price tag.'
0:23:57 > 0:24:00How important is price to IKEA?
0:24:00 > 0:24:05I think it's the heartbeat, the DNA of our business.
0:24:05 > 0:24:06It starts with the price.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12IKEA's big Swedish idea was to make designer furniture
0:24:12 > 0:24:16and furnishings affordable, attainable.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21IKEA was able to keep prices down
0:24:21 > 0:24:24thanks to what's known as a global supply chain.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27That's mass production overseas, transporting in bulk
0:24:27 > 0:24:31and then selling everything in vast hangars, like this one.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37And there was another way in which IKEA kept costs down.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41It expected you and me to make most of the furniture,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45whether we liked it or, as in my case, not.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47I really like shopping at IKEA.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49I like just walking around.
0:24:49 > 0:24:50I love the marketplace bit
0:24:50 > 0:24:52with all the little nick-nacky bits to buy.
0:24:52 > 0:24:53Umm...
0:24:53 > 0:24:56And also, we've bought quite a lot of furniture and things from there
0:24:56 > 0:24:58because it is cheap compared to other places.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01And you can walk round and choose what you want and then take
0:25:01 > 0:25:05it home with you in the car, really, and get your husband to build it.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10The formula went down a treat,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13though a few things were lost in translation.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18There was a lot of Swedish names that sort of had, umm, a little
0:25:18 > 0:25:21bit of another meaning in the English language.
0:25:21 > 0:25:26We had, umm, the Bra table top. We also had a hammock called Slappa,
0:25:26 > 0:25:32which ended in an A. And we also had a Bolax coffee table which
0:25:32 > 0:25:37caused a lot of confusion to people and got a few chuckles,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40especially when the warehouse rang up and said, "We have another
0:25:40 > 0:25:43"load of Bolax for you!" That, err, didn't last in the range very long!
0:25:46 > 0:25:48And gradually, this part of the northwest
0:25:48 > 0:25:51became... well, a bit Nordic.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58Ett, tva, tre, fyra, fem, sex, sju,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02atta, nio, tjugofyra, tjugofem, tjugosex...
0:26:02 > 0:26:03Don't know any more!
0:26:03 > 0:26:05HE LAUGHS
0:26:05 > 0:26:09And it wasn't just Warrington because IKEA reacted to
0:26:09 > 0:26:13and led significant cultural change in Britain.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16# Don't worry, be happy... #
0:26:16 > 0:26:19We were going through, er, a real fundamental
0:26:19 > 0:26:23change in the society in the UK at the time. I think people were really
0:26:23 > 0:26:29looking for a different way to, umm, decorate and furnish their homes.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32It was the year, also, if you remember, of Changing Rooms.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43And then suddenly, IKEA was there with this very...
0:26:43 > 0:26:48what has become an iconic TV ad for us - 'Chuck out the Chintz!'
0:26:49 > 0:26:50# Chuck out that Chintz
0:26:50 > 0:26:52# Come on, do it today
0:26:52 > 0:26:55# Prise off that pelmet and throw it away... #
0:26:55 > 0:26:59The ad tapped into the way our national tastes were evolving.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03With IKEA's help, we could be less like our parents
0:27:03 > 0:27:05and embrace Scandinavian style.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09- Chuck out that Chintz! - Yes, chuck out that Chintz!
0:27:09 > 0:27:12# Yes, chuck out that Chintz today! #
0:27:16 > 0:27:20IKEA, in a way, captured and led a new national mood.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26As Tony Blair's New Labour swept to power in a landslide in 1997,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29the idea was that we were all middle-class,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31the nation had become middle-class.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33- Hiya.- Hi.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42IKEA, and retailers like IKEA, were promising the good life for all.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54In the '90s, it wasn't only a new generation of retailers
0:27:54 > 0:27:58like IKEA that were selling cheap goods, made abroad.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03We'd long imported what we wanted.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07But with globalisation, this trend accelerated,
0:28:07 > 0:28:13and British stores turned in ever larger numbers to foreign producers,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17which could make stuff at much lower cost than British manufacturers.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23For manufacturing in Britain, it was bad news that retailers
0:28:23 > 0:28:26were finding it easier to buy cheaply from Eastern Europe,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30from North Africa, from Asia, from all over the world.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34And perhaps the greatest casualty was one of those pillars
0:28:34 > 0:28:40of Britain's former industrial might - clothing and textiles.
0:28:40 > 0:28:41Marks & Spencer,
0:28:41 > 0:28:45the departmental store with the famous St Michael label...
0:28:45 > 0:28:48For years, Marks & Spencer had boasted of
0:28:48 > 0:28:50its support for British manufacturing.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56Remember that over 99% of St Michael goods are British-made, and there'll
0:28:56 > 0:28:59be a wider variety in your Marks & Spencer store.
0:29:00 > 0:29:0395% of our sales were British-made goods
0:29:03 > 0:29:07throughout the '60s, '70s, '80s.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12It became obvious that in quite large areas of the business...
0:29:14 > 0:29:16..we were not competitive.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18- Is that price or quality or... - Price.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Now, the reason M&S was no longer competitive was that many
0:29:24 > 0:29:28rivals, without its loyalty to British manufacturers,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32were simply going for the cheapest foreign-made goods.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36I've always had a great respect for Marks & Spencer.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39They did then, and still do, some things extremely well
0:29:39 > 0:29:42at very high standards in the business.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45I think they never appreciated the full
0:29:45 > 0:29:48significance of global trade and global sourcing.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Marks & Spencer made profits of more than £1 billion
0:29:54 > 0:29:57for a couple of years running in the late '90s,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59the first British retailer to do so.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05But profits then plunged and the company, to cut costs, abandoned
0:30:05 > 0:30:10its historic and vital support for Britain's textile industry.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17M&S pulled the plug on British suppliers.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19And the percentage of its clothes made in Britain
0:30:19 > 0:30:24went from 90% in the 1980s to 55% at the end of the '90s
0:30:24 > 0:30:28to next to nothing after the millennium.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31# Not the promises of what tomorrow brings... #
0:30:33 > 0:30:35M&S tried to keep the UK textile industry going on,
0:30:35 > 0:30:37but at the end of the day, it was uneconomic.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41We had to go. We had to go. And in truth, we went too late.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43We were the last man leaving.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46# Nothing ever lasts forever
0:30:46 > 0:30:48# Nothing ever lasts forever... #
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Marks & Spencer's move was the culmination of a huge shift
0:30:55 > 0:30:57away from British manufacturing,
0:30:57 > 0:31:02which laid waste for the country's clothing and textiles industry.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04People crying, shocked.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08What else is there? It's all finished.
0:31:08 > 0:31:09Textiles, it's all finished.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14As a nation, we got much cheaper clothing,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17but we struggled to develop new exporting
0:31:17 > 0:31:22and manufacturing businesses to replace those that were destroyed.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25Now, here's one set of numbers that shows
0:31:25 > 0:31:28the scale of our industrial decline.
0:31:28 > 0:31:34In 1978, more than 750,000 people were
0:31:34 > 0:31:37employed in textiles and clothing.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42That had slumped, 30 years later, to less than 90,000.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48It was to the Far East that many British store groups were
0:31:48 > 0:31:50looking for low-cost makers.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55Hong Kong has been a source of cheap clothes since the 1970s.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58One retailer has perhaps understood this more than most.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07Sir Philip Green is in town to open his first Topshop in China.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13And soon, he'll move to the mainland, Shanghai and Beijing.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19It's a new front for him in his project to export a famous British
0:32:19 > 0:32:21brand around the world.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25We're back in business now. That's the fun bit!
0:32:27 > 0:32:32It's a big new stage for the showman of Britain's high street,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34an entrepreneur with an acute understanding
0:32:34 > 0:32:36of how retailing has gone global.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41There's only one Philip Green born every 50, 100 years.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45You know, he is very colourful, but he is very able,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47he's very quick, he's very charismatic,
0:32:47 > 0:32:52he's financially, you know, very, very savvy and, you know, he is fun.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Come on, Mary! Got to do something for a bit of fun.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00I might not... might not get out of it!
0:33:00 > 0:33:01- That's good.- Where is it?
0:33:01 > 0:33:03Wanted to tie you up for years!
0:33:06 > 0:33:08Can't believe you're making me do this!
0:33:08 > 0:33:11Now that will ruin my hair!
0:33:11 > 0:33:12You see?
0:33:12 > 0:33:14# Golden years
0:33:14 > 0:33:16# Gold, whop, whop, whop... #
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Hong Kong, 40 years earlier, was where he made a discovery that
0:33:23 > 0:33:24would shape his career.
0:33:26 > 0:33:27A trip as a young man opened
0:33:27 > 0:33:32his eyes to the possibility of producing clothes in the Far East.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35# Nights are warm and the days are young... #
0:33:35 > 0:33:38I visited Hong Kong the first time in 1974.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41It was the centre of the world in terms of supply chain.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Everybody was in a hurry. You know, there was action.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47- It felt exciting?- Yeah. Oh! I mean...
0:33:47 > 0:33:50The things you could get done there, you know, at speed.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53You sort of arrive, you're left with all the samples in your bag.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56It was exciting. You know, just had momentum.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59You know, they're doers, just got things done.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02No matter how complicated, you get it done.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04# Golden years... #
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Philip Green is one of the towering figures of British retailing -
0:34:08 > 0:34:12driven, relentless, domineering, often controversial.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17His career started here, in the back streets north of Oxford Street,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21which used to be the centre of London's rag trade.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24It's here where he learned how to wheel and deal,
0:34:24 > 0:34:27how to spot a bargain and avoid a turkey -
0:34:27 > 0:34:31skills which would eventually deliver him ownership of a huge
0:34:31 > 0:34:36chunk of Britain's high street and turn him into a multi-billionaire.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41# I'm in with the in crowd
0:34:41 > 0:34:44# I go where the in crowd goes... #
0:34:45 > 0:34:49In 1979, he acquired his first shop in the heart
0:34:49 > 0:34:53of London's West End. It sold discounted designer clothing.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Green was in his element. But not all his ventures worked.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01What about the idea of the cake?
0:35:01 > 0:35:03Would be nice to have a cake in the shape of a jean.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06Joan Collins jeans never quite became the high street brand
0:35:06 > 0:35:07he'd hoped.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20And the old City of London was a bit stand-offish.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23But through the '80s and '90s, he did deal after deal,
0:35:23 > 0:35:28specialising in acquiring near bust businesses, fixing them
0:35:28 > 0:35:30and selling them on for a profit.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34He was very much the unknown quantity,
0:35:34 > 0:35:38appeared to be brash, er, appeared to be very self-confident,
0:35:38 > 0:35:43and was so different from the established effete retailer that
0:35:43 > 0:35:49tended to tread the hallowed halls of Marks & Spencer and John Lewis.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52And maybe some people found that quite difficult.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54You know, what did this mean to the establishment?
0:35:54 > 0:35:58Green had an advantage over the old establishment -
0:35:58 > 0:36:00he not only understood how to run a business better than
0:36:00 > 0:36:04most of them, he also had a much better grasp of finance.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08# Harder, better, faster, stronger... #
0:36:08 > 0:36:11In 2000, he bought the ailing British Home Stores
0:36:11 > 0:36:16for £200 million, mostly with borrowed money,
0:36:16 > 0:36:22and within four years, he'd pocketed £400 million in dividends.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24Two years later, he bought Arcadia,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28the retail giant that owned Topshop and Dorothy Perkins,
0:36:28 > 0:36:29among other brands.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31# Harder, better, faster, stronger... #
0:36:31 > 0:36:35Most of the great 20th century store groups were built up over
0:36:35 > 0:36:39decades by tyrannical obsessives such as Simon Marks
0:36:39 > 0:36:43at Marks & Spencer and Sir Jack Cohen at Tesco.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Sir Philip Green, with his ruthless attention to detail, has
0:36:47 > 0:36:53much in common with them, but there is a really important difference.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57His vast 21st century retailing empire,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01which includes BHS, Burton and this place, Topshop,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04was bought over just a couple of years at the turn of the
0:37:04 > 0:37:09century with hundreds of millions of pounds, largely borrowed from banks.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Green is a symbol of this high-borrowing era.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25He bought Arcadia for £850 million,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28putting in just £9 million of his own money
0:37:28 > 0:37:30and borrowing almost all the rest.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33It's a remarkable thing, the way you won
0:37:33 > 0:37:36the confidence of bankers in the City, in that sense.
0:37:36 > 0:37:37How did you do that?
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Repaying them. On the due date. I mean, I think, being reliable.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Nine o'clock's nine o'clock.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46You know, I say I'm going to do something, I do it.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49You shake hands with me, you don't need a piece of paper. It's done.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53He's definitely got the X factor, you know.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55He's definitely got the magic dust.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58I've seen him do things which hadn't been thought of by the bank,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00and yet, you're paying a bank to help you get the deal done.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02So, you know, he's as good as any banker.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Green's brass neck and ambition made him the most powerful man
0:38:06 > 0:38:11on the high street and it gained him a huge mountain of cash.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13But it wasn't enough.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17He had his eye on another great British high street institution.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22I remember walking round M&S.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26It was probably October '03. It sort of looked pretty miserable.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29I just said - virtually joking - I said, "Do you know what?"
0:38:29 > 0:38:32I said, "I'd love to put M&S out of their misery."
0:38:32 > 0:38:35One of Britain's biggest retail brands, Marks & Spencer,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37now finds itself being targeted by
0:38:37 > 0:38:39one of Britain's most successful retailers.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Philip Green, the billionaire...
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Green called Stuart Rose with an offer.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49# A little less conversation A little more action, please... #
0:38:49 > 0:38:53Philip had called me up and said, "Come and see me, son.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56"I'm going to bid for Marks & Spencer and I've got a job for you."
0:38:56 > 0:39:01Rose turned him down. He was then made a more tempting offer
0:39:01 > 0:39:04by Green's enemy, the board of Marks & Spencer.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07It saw Stuart Rose as their white knight.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11And by Saturday night, I was chief executive.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13And Philip was unamused?
0:39:13 > 0:39:17Philip was pretty unamused, yes, to say the least!
0:39:19 > 0:39:23Philip Green felt Rose had betrayed him by taking the M&S job.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26Uneasy friends, long-standing rivals,
0:39:26 > 0:39:31they went head-to-head in the corporate battle of the age.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33Did you think you were going to win?
0:39:33 > 0:39:36I never thought I was going to lose.
0:39:36 > 0:39:37I worried about it but in...
0:39:37 > 0:39:41But I always believed that we would prevail.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44'It was so close, so tight, so closely fought, that if I'd
0:39:44 > 0:39:46'ever allowed myself to think, I'm going to lose this,
0:39:46 > 0:39:48'I'd have lost it.'
0:39:51 > 0:39:53'I remember we were sitting, actually, here in one
0:39:53 > 0:39:57'of the boardrooms and it was about eight, 9 o'clock at night. I said,'
0:39:57 > 0:40:00"We're either going to open this thing tonight
0:40:00 > 0:40:01"or I'm going to the beach."
0:40:05 > 0:40:07Green went to the beach.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11For a man used to winning, losing was a bit of a blow.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Instead, he poured his energies into Topshop.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24It had long been a successful British brand,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27but under Green it would become a leader,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29an icon of young fashion.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35He would run Topshop with an attention to detail
0:40:35 > 0:40:38which marks out many of Britain's retail success stories.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41I think we should have two or three more mannequins this side.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43I think it's a bit... Don't you think so?
0:40:43 > 0:40:47- We can get more in. - You said it yourself.- Yeah.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51And he would add a final ingredient - stardust.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55Much of retail is show,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58and Sir Philip Green has always been something of a showman
0:40:58 > 0:41:02who understands the awesome power of celebrity.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06From the launch of his very first West End store in 1979,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10he's always seen the shop window as a stage.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14And in 2007 he put on probably his most celebrated production,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16starring Kate Moss.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21# I know a girl with the golden touch... #
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Moss, who helped design a range of clothes for Green,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29caused a sensation when she appeared in the window
0:41:29 > 0:41:33of Topshop's flagship store in Oxford Street.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37The fans and paparazzi lapped it up.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39# You can have it all if it matters so much... #
0:41:39 > 0:41:41Kate Moss is a one-off.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46She's an iconic figure, she's got a certain rock chic style.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49It was by pure luck that we got together, it wasn't a plan.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52It was just one of those instinctive moments.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57I said I want to build a stage in the window.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00Kate said to me, "Are you sure?" I said, "Please trust me."
0:42:00 > 0:42:03And you know, there were pictures that went round the globe.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14Today, Sir Philip Green is an unusual combination of noisy outsider and establishment.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19This is the Fashion Retail Academy,
0:42:19 > 0:42:21an institution he's founded and helped to bankroll,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24which gives young people, some of them like him,
0:42:24 > 0:42:29without many formal qualifications, training in the retail game.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33And today it's their graduation ceremony.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36It's an occasion which reflects the man himself -
0:42:36 > 0:42:41glitzy, and not short of pithy and blunt advice on how to get on.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43I come here to speak from time to time and say
0:42:43 > 0:42:47if you don't love what you do when you wake up in the morning, don't do it.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Green sees the academy as an example of how his accumulation
0:42:50 > 0:42:55of vast wealth allows him to give something back to Britain.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59But others question whether he's given back enough in tax.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07In 2005, Arcadia paid a stunning £1.2 billion dividend
0:43:07 > 0:43:09to its legal owner -
0:43:09 > 0:43:12not in fact Phillip Green, but his wife Tina.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15She's resident in the tax haven of Monaco,
0:43:15 > 0:43:20which means she wasn't liable for £300 million of British tax.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26You grew up in this country and it, to an extent, made you who you are.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29There are some who say you don't give enough back through tax.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32What do you say to those people?
0:43:32 > 0:43:33I don't think there's anything to say.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37As far as I'm concerned, we're a UK-based company. We've paid all...
0:43:37 > 0:43:39You go and look at our accounts, right?
0:43:39 > 0:43:43We've paid all our corporation tax that's due from the time
0:43:43 > 0:43:45we bought any of the businesses.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50We've not had any wonky, clever UK tax planning.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53We've been UK taxpayers.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55We've got a £500 million payroll
0:43:55 > 0:43:59and it hasn't been done by firing lots of people.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02It hasn't been done by sort of throwing people in the road.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05The acid test is, everybody's here.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07Everybody's working away.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10We've been successful. I can't apologise for that.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18In the years after the millennium,
0:44:18 > 0:44:23Green was one of many fashion retailers who had to respond to the increasing power of celebrity.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35The proliferation of celebrity magazines meant shoppers
0:44:35 > 0:44:38could see what stars were wearing and demand the same look.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48For most fashion businesses, the increase in the power of celebrities
0:44:48 > 0:44:52over the nineties and the noughties has been seismic,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54absolutely seismic.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59So our retailers had to collaborate with the trend-setters
0:44:59 > 0:45:05and move super fast to get the latest look on the racks and shelves.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Speed, from design to the shop, became the be-all and end-all.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Successful retailers could no longer get away
0:45:15 > 0:45:17with just a single collection per season.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22They had to respond immediately to what celebrities were wearing
0:45:22 > 0:45:24or the latest catwalk show.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27So-called fast fashion had arrived.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32If David Beckham did turn up at a party in Los Angeles tonight
0:45:32 > 0:45:35with a white tie on, you can bet
0:45:35 > 0:45:38that somebody will turn up in a shop tomorrow saying, "Have you got any white ties?"
0:45:38 > 0:45:40That's fast fashion.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44What's the fastest you can spot a trend and get the clothes on the shelves?
0:45:44 > 0:45:46- Three weeks.- Three weeks.
0:45:46 > 0:45:51When you started in the business, what would be the typical lead time for a typical British retailer?
0:45:51 > 0:45:53Oh, it would be months.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55People were thinking about winter and summer.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Now we're thinking about Monday and Friday.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00MUSIC: "Hey Ya" by Outkast
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Fast fashion, fuelled by our celebrity-obsessed culture,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10has reinvented the retailing of clothes over the past 20 years.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20It's powered the growth of stores like H&M, River Island and New Look.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24But there was one store
0:46:24 > 0:46:28which would do fashion faster and cheaper than anyone else.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Primark.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35# Hey ya! #
0:46:35 > 0:46:38It arrived in Britain from Ireland in 1973.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45But it wasn't until just after the millennium that it began to grow
0:46:45 > 0:46:47into the colossus that it is today.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54First it bought former C&A stores,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57then snapped up 41 Littlewoods sites,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01giving it a presence on most big British high streets.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04And when it arrived,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08what we all noticed was how unbelievably cheap it was.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13I go into Primark, basically, for the price.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Buy a pair of flip flops in Primark for four pound,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19go to Marks and Spencer and pay £15.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22So it comes down to price, really.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Since Primark has come into the spotlight a little bit more,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28a lot more people are starting to take an interest in fashion
0:47:28 > 0:47:30because they can actually afford to.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33And I think that's great because it's opened up to so many more people that would want to,
0:47:33 > 0:47:35but couldn't necessarily afford to before.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Primark was at the forefront
0:47:39 > 0:47:43of fashion prices becoming cheaper and cheaper.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47According to official statistics, clothing prices in the UK in 2004
0:47:47 > 0:47:52were 15% below where they had been 15 years earlier.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55Now, this trend towards cheaper and cheaper clothing
0:47:55 > 0:47:58created an extraordinary new phenomenon.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Clothes were bought, worn once, maybe twice, and then thrown away.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07It's almost disposable clothes, you can buy something from Primark
0:48:07 > 0:48:11for £5, wear it twice and then you don't feel guilty about throwing it
0:48:11 > 0:48:15away because it's the same as buying fish and chips, isn't it, really?
0:48:19 > 0:48:23The driving force behind clothes sometimes cheaper than chips
0:48:23 > 0:48:26was Arthur Ryan, a legend in the industry
0:48:26 > 0:48:29and notoriously shy of publicity.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32This Primark corporate video
0:48:32 > 0:48:36is almost our only glimpse of the man himself and his business philosophy.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40What we're trying to do all the time is to keep the business focused on where we are.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44People said we should grade up and start selling £200 coats.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48It's just a death trap.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51They're not going to go and spend £59
0:48:51 > 0:48:56because another £59 gets them to Lanzarote for two weeks.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58Arthur's a very, very, very old friend.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02This man has definitely travelled more miles across more stores
0:49:02 > 0:49:06than anybody ever in the retail business.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08He was out on the road every week, walking stores,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11travelling stores, doing local mark downs.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13I mean, if you want to talk about somebody that loved, loved,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17loved the business, he would be my champion.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20This is Charlotte's first range.
0:49:20 > 0:49:25You know the rule - if it doesn't work, you won't have a second range.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36Ryan's combination of chic and cheap has won Primark
0:49:36 > 0:49:39a devoted following among women shoppers of all ages.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47And in 2007, that tipped over into Primark-mania.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52- Go back! Go back! - SCREAMING
0:49:52 > 0:49:54Oh, my God!
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Primark had become so popular
0:50:05 > 0:50:11that when it opened its first flagship store here on London's Oxford Street, there was mayhem.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17People fought to get inside, the police were called,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20a couple of women ended up in hospital.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23London's evening paper described it as,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25"the Battle of Primark".
0:50:25 > 0:50:28Now our obsession with buying as much as we can
0:50:28 > 0:50:33as cheaply as we can had driven us, well, slightly bonkers.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38And our need for everything to be cheap, cheap, cheap
0:50:38 > 0:50:42may have heaped a huge, tragic cost on others.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47In April this year, a Bangladesh factory used by companies
0:50:47 > 0:50:51supplying a number of big retailers, including Primark, collapsed,
0:50:51 > 0:50:53killing more than 1,000 people.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00We've seen a vivid example of what's happened in Bangladesh, where people tragically died.
0:51:00 > 0:51:01How do you think that happens?
0:51:01 > 0:51:04It's from price pressure because there's a relentless demand
0:51:04 > 0:51:05from people saying,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07"Give me this on a cheaper possible price."
0:51:07 > 0:51:09Somebody cuts corners. And that is very tragic.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12And, you know, we as consumers are largely,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15largely insulated from that.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18We move on but these are other people's lives,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20these are other people's, you know, livelihoods
0:51:20 > 0:51:26and we now in a relatively rich society need to understand that.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30When something happens in the news like the Bangladesh scenario recently,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33it does sort of bring it to the forefront of your mind.
0:51:33 > 0:51:34But I think, to be honest,
0:51:34 > 0:51:36when you're getting up and going shopping
0:51:36 > 0:51:38it's not the first thing you think of.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40You just think, "Oh, I like that top", you don't go,
0:51:40 > 0:51:43"Oh, I wonder who made it and I wonder what the conditions they were working in."
0:51:43 > 0:51:46It's not something that comes to the forefront of your mind.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Some now ask if the race to the bottom has gone too far.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55I think we've got to the point now where you just cannot push pricing any cheaper.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57Where are we going to go and manufacture stuff?
0:51:57 > 0:52:01We've seen manufacturing go from the UK. It went to the Far East.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03It moved into Cambodia. It moved into India.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05It moved into Bangladesh. It moved into Sri Lanka.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08It's moving now into Africa. It's moving now into South America.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10I mean, eventually we're going to have to go to Mars.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16But in the early years of this century,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20we were far too busy buying to worry too much.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23Britain was enjoying what seemed like a never-ending boom.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31When life was booming, people were looking for more for less
0:52:31 > 0:52:35because they had more information, more ability to choose at will
0:52:35 > 0:52:37from lots of different sources.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Supermarkets offering a huge variety of choice
0:52:41 > 0:52:43so the world was their oyster.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47There was unbroken growth for 16 years
0:52:47 > 0:52:53- genuinely, we'd never had it so good and we borrowed and borrowed to buy and buy.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58We do shop too much but what can you do? We love it.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01That's what credit cards are for. The buy now, pay later syndrome.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05We went through this period of spend, spend, spend
0:53:05 > 0:53:07and then it's stuff you don't want.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09You know, and women were the worst at it, you know the cupboard,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12everything falls out and the pairs of, you know,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14seven pairs of shoes they'd never worn!
0:53:15 > 0:53:21Some of our city centres became glitzy temples to consumerism
0:53:21 > 0:53:23and for perhaps the best symbol of the boom years,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27you had to look somewhere slightly unexpected.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31ADVERT: The Bull Ring shopping centre is symbolic of the new Birmingham.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34There's nowhere quite like it anywhere else in the world.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39When the old Bull Ring shopping centre was opened in the 1960s,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42it was the last word in modern.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48There's no more exciting place anywhere for window shopping
0:53:48 > 0:53:50or just browsing around.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56But by the 1980s it was fast losing its lustre,
0:53:56 > 0:53:57as these ads rather hinted.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28In the early years of the millennium,
0:54:28 > 0:54:33the ageing and increasingly dowdy Bull Ring was transformed by this,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36the new Selfridges,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40a cartoonist's space-age vision of a modern department store.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45And in a way, it captured the spirit of the boom years.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50Big, bold, confident, and perhaps a bit excessive.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00Shops like Selfridges had once been exclusive to London's West End.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03But this store and the opening of Harvey Nicks in Leeds
0:55:03 > 0:55:07a few years earlier seemed to promise that life's luxuries
0:55:07 > 0:55:12were tantalisingly within reach of all of us.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20Yet the boom had been built on dangerous foundations.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25This was an age when the price of much of what we wanted to buy
0:55:25 > 0:55:30became cheaper and cheaper, and with inflation seemingly a thing of the past,
0:55:30 > 0:55:32the Bank of England kept interest rates relatively low,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37which encouraged us to do more and more of our shopping on credit.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41Now, as the retailing boom became something of a frenzy,
0:55:41 > 0:55:45just what we borrowed on credit cards
0:55:45 > 0:55:50between 2003 and 2005 soared an eye-popping 30%.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Household debts ballooned
0:55:57 > 0:56:00well above those of our old competitors the Germans,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03and more than in any of the big, rich nations,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06including shopping-mad America.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11By 2006, the debts of British people had become greater
0:56:11 > 0:56:14than the value of everything the country produces each year.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20We were living and spending well beyond our means.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24Rachel Gilhen was a self-confessed shopaholic
0:56:24 > 0:56:26who borrowed to feed her habit.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28I love shopping a lot.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31I used to enjoy going to the shops. I used to go to the shops every day.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36Didn't always used to be clothes, used to be shoes, handbags, make-up.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39It was very easy at the time to get credit. Very easy.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43There was one occasion where I had an appointment with the bank
0:56:43 > 0:56:45in my lunch hour to see about a bank loan.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49And by the time I'd left the back, the money was already in my account.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Her debts soon mounted up.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53I was only making minimum payments
0:56:53 > 0:56:56which obviously only probably scrapes the interest.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01I was getting calls from banks, I was getting letters from the banks,
0:57:01 > 0:57:04asking for payments which I couldn't make.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07And that's when I realised I was in trouble with money.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15With debts of £14,000 and no way to repay them,
0:57:15 > 0:57:18Rachel felt compelled to declare herself bankrupt.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23She wasn't the only person borrowing more than they could afford.
0:57:25 > 0:57:31I was amazed at the easy level of obtaining high amounts of credit.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33You could see customers coming in the shop,
0:57:33 > 0:57:37walking out with a thousand pounds' worth of equipment, no deposit,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39no interest for 12 months.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41It really was a matter of some concern,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44and in my heart I knew it just couldn't possibly last.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48The great shopping boom didn't last.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53We'd binged, buying more and more for less and less.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55On the eve of the great crash,
0:57:55 > 0:58:03consumers, shoppers, were beginning to struggle under the burden of record debts.
0:58:03 > 0:58:09As for retailers, their need to buy as cheaply as possible from abroad
0:58:09 > 0:58:12almost killed British manufacturing.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16The massive spree had gone on far too long
0:58:16 > 0:58:20and about to land on our doormats was the mother of all bills.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24Next time:
0:58:24 > 0:58:28How a banking crash and the unstoppable rise of online shopping
0:58:28 > 0:58:33whipped up the perfect storm on Britain's high streets.
0:58:59 > 0:59:01Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd